Beware of fake eclipse viewing glasses

Northeast Vision Center in Newport recently bought 100 pairs of special glasses to hand out to patients so they could safely watch the August 21 solar eclipse. They intended the glasses to be a gesture of good will, a service to their customers.

But on Monday Amazon delivered the unfortunate news that the glasses might not be safe after all.

Now, Northeast Vision is urging patients who received the glasses to throw them away. Instead they can come in and get a new pair that will be safe.

The problem, Sophie Logan at Northeast Vision said, is that the market has suddenly been flooded with fraudulent eclipse-viewing glasses as a result of the rare eclipse. And the fraudulent marketers have gotten very good at making their fakes appear to be the real thing.

“We are all so devastated,” Ms. Logan said. “Thank God we only had 100 of them to give out. We have 100 to replace those now, and we’re getting another 100 on Friday for people to come and get.”

The result of viewing a partial solar eclipse without proper glasses could be blindness, Ms. Logan said.

“It’s pretty scary stuff,” she said. “I feel like everyone should be aware of this. In general, I know a lot of people who have ordered from Amazon.”

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